Duma Praises Putin's Anti-Crisis Plan

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and his government won top marks for their efforts to handle the financial crisis in a report approved by the State Duma on Friday despite unanimous opposition from all non-United Russia deputies.

Deputies from the Communist Party, the Liberal Democrat Party and A Just Russia all criticized the resolution for lacking any criticism and offering unjustified praise of the government's performance last year.

"It contains no assessments and contains false information," Maxim Rotmistrov, the second-ranking Liberal Democratic official in the Duma, said by telephone.

The resolution says the government "delivered timely financial aid to the real sector of the economy," which contradicts the government's own report that says "the money allocated for anti-crisis measures didn't reach the real sector of the economy," Rotmistrov said.

He said all the factions except United Russia unanimously voted against the resolution, which was approved after Putin delivered a report to the Duma on April 6 about his government's anti-crisis plan and its performance for last year. Rotmistrov speculated that United Russia deputies, who control the Duma, were "afraid" to criticize the government.

Andrei Vorobyov, United Russia's No. 2 official in the Duma, defended the government's anti-crisis plan, calling it "timely" and insisting that the budget money did reach the real sector of the economy.

"It's another matter that this money might not have been enough," Vorobyov said by telephone.

Asked about the criticism of the resolution by the other three Duma factions, Vorobyov said the critics' "emotions dominated over their common sense." Putin heads United Russia.

But Gennady Gudkov, deputy head of the A Just Russia faction, said by telephone that the resolution had "no analysis" of the government's actions and contained "no criticism." He called the resolution "a sloppy work."

Senior Communist official Ivan Melnikov called the resolution "a low-quality formal reply" that consisted of "general phrases," according to an interview published Friday in Nezavisimaya Gazeta.

Communist officials were not available for further comment Friday.

The Communists and A Just Russia criticized the government's anti-crisis plan when Putin presented it to the Duma this month.

Also Friday, deputies passed a resolution allowing members of the Public Chamber to speak for up to 5 minutes at Duma sessions considering bills that might contain civil rights violations, Interfax reported.

The Duma also approved a bill in a third and final reading that would allow parties that collect less than 7 percent of the vote in Duma elections to get one or two seats in the parliament. The Kremlin-backed bill must now be passed by the Federation Council before it can be signed into law by President Dmitry Medvedev.